I stared at him in disbelief. Since our morning class was combined and moved to the evening for a sunset camping class that Sarah had talked us into, Rick and I had the luxury of sleeping in until ten today. He gave me a once-over. I followed and realized I was wearing my pink sleeping shorts and a black bra tank.
“Throw something on. I want to show you something,” he said excitedly.
I blinked once. “Wait here.” Not bothering to question his eagerness, I simply shut the door and switched my pink shorts for a pair or leggings and threw my white college sweatshirt over the black tank.
We drove for only seven minutes. I hadn’t bothered asking him where we were going. I was just glad he had a cup of hot coffee waiting for me in his black Jeep.
He pulled out of the highway and circled around a secluded circular driveway that seemed like a lookout. From the looks of it, it wasn’t very popular this early in the morning, but the sun was out, and it had a decent view.
Rick dashed around the car to open the door for me. I regretfully placed my coffee back in the cup holder and jumped out. He led me toward the edge of the elevated highway, where there was a lineup of large rocks over the rusty silver-metal railing. He climbed over and reached for my hand. I peered over to check the distance from where we stood to the river below us and, without hesitation, followed.
“What did you want to show me?”
“That.” He pointed to a city across the river. And it didn’t take me long to see what he was pointing at. It so vividly stood out from its bright surroundings.
Gray mists of rain fell across the plains in somewhat of a funnel shape. You could see the storms miles away. There were three visible from where we stood. Each one seemed as if it could have been sketched with a pencil and then smudged onto a perfectly painted landscape. The light coming from behind the clouds almost contradicted what was happening on the surface. It was bright and close, as if the sun was waiting to make its entrance. Above those three dark clouds, you could see a brand-new day waiting to unfold. I looked from one to the other, without ever settling on which seemed more intense or which more incredible.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Rick was watching me instead of the clouds. His look mirrored what I felt over the panoramic view spread in front of me. “It’s amazing,” I said, unable to peel my eyes off the section of rain.
“I thought you might like it.”
“Like it? This is incredible. I feel silly for never having noticed this before.”
Rick laughed, breaking his gaze off me. “I’ll have to warn Sarah to vet her applicants more thoroughly.”
I shot him a look and turned back to an unbelievable part of nature unfolding in front of me. But I was still curious about one thing. “Why did you bring me here?”
His eyes drifted to the bright sun hiding behind some clouds in the distance. His eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. I guess I knew you’d appreciate it.”
“Well, thank you.” My eyes somehow managed to pull away from his shimmery green ones and went back to the view. “Wow, it’s amazing how something like that just… happens.”
Rick took a sip of his coffee. “It’s always happening… somewhere. You just have to be in the right place to see it.”
Later that night, I fastened the strings on the half-open tents while Rick was doing the same on the other side. He was tall enough to check that all the rails were sturdy. I scanned the campers to ensure they were all zipped up in their sleeping bags and a safe distance away from one another.
I grabbed my backpack and walked back to the bonfire Rick had successfully built hours earlier. I glanced up at the clear night sky. The stars were evenly spread out. There was truly an endless number of them. Rick piled up more wood and threw it into the fire.
“I thought we were waiting for it to die down,” I said, sliding onto a rock about three feet from the fire.
“Nah, we could always put it out when we’re ready.” He shrugged, and I eyed him, warily.
“I like to stay up later. You don’t have to,” he added after a moment. He picked up a large log, placed it sideways, and sat on it about two feet from me. He pulled a familiar looking backpack to his feet and withdrew two sodas. He tossed me one.
“Sure you don’t have anything stronger in there?” I teased raising an eyebrow at him.
He shot me a look.
The next question was boiling inside me and given the silence, it was even harder to hold back.
“So what were you doing that night at the pool, anyway?”
“Would you believe I’m a part-time watch guard?”
I shook my head lightly. “I thought that was my job,” I joked.
He smiled and played with his soda cap. “I just needed to go someplace I could be alone. I was considering the beach, but…”
I understood. The beach didn’t possess the same brilliance that you can witness from sitting poolside at night, the reflection of the moon complementing its crystal blue tones. The shimmering wrinkles in the water were mesmerizing. The ocean was plain black at night and lacked any soothing effects, except maybe for the sounds.
